


Mundus

by Nary



Category: Rome
Genre: Biting, Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, Desperation, F/M, French Kissing, Frottage, Ghosts, Jealousy, Kissing, M/M, Male Friendship, Missing Scene, Mutual Masturbation, Rough Sex, Storytelling, Yuletide, Yuletide 2008
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-25
Updated: 2008-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-14 07:37:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/512871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nary/pseuds/Nary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The tavern's dead tonight.  The <i>mundus</i> is open, which means folks stay at home, and businesses are closed by law.  Eirene and Gaia take the opportunity to give the floors and walls and everything else a good going-over, drafting the girls into helping them.  "No one would want to fuck on this table, let alone eat off it," Gaia mutters as she scrubs, and Pullo laughs.</p><p>"No one who comes here cares where they fuck."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mundus

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lasergirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasergirl/gifts).



> Thanks to FairestCat for a late-night beta!

The tavern's dead tonight. The _mundus_ is open, which means folks stay at home, and businesses are closed by law. Eirene and Gaia take the opportunity to give the floors and walls and everything else a good going-over, drafting the girls into helping them. "No one would want to fuck on this table, let alone eat off it," Gaia mutters as she scrubs, and Pullo laughs.

"No one who comes here cares where they fuck."

"We know you'd fuck in a pig-sty if you found a willing hole there, but some of our patrons have higher standards. I know that's difficult to believe."

"Language," says Vorenus sternly from his seat. "My daughters don't need to hear that sort of talk."

The younger Vorena just scowls at them all, as usual, and the elder pretends she's deaf. Pullo imagines they've heard far worse in their day - hard lives those girls have had, and made no easier by their father, despite all he's done for them. But things are better now then they were a month ago, and may still get better, if Fortune favours them.

"Why is it no one comes today?" Eirene asks, bringing in two more buckets of clean water, so Pullo explains about the _mundus_ as best as he can.

"It's a door to the underworld, and three days a year the priests open it so the spirits can come out. These days are holy, and nothing can be done - no fighting, no business, no weddings, nothing."

"But why then do they let the spirits out? Is it not unlucky?"

Pullo shrugs. "I don't know. I suppose spirits need a vacation like everyone else, a chance to get away from Hades for a few days, see the sights..."

"I hope none of them come here," Eirene says with a little shudder. Her people must have some bad superstitions about the dead, Pullo figures, so he pats her on the shoulder to try and put her at ease.

"Don't worry. There are many nicer places they could go."

"I don't know," Gaia says pensively. "Plenty of people have died in this tavern over the years, I'd wager. They might return if they wanted revenge..."

The girls look interested at that prospect, though Eirene shivers. "Tell us a ghost story, Gaia," Vorena the elder says, sounding almost cheerful for once as she sweeps the floor. "One about revenge."

"There was a soldier," the slave begins, "who left his love behind when he went to war. She swore to be faithful, and she was - until she heard that he was dead."

"A different story," Vorenus snaps, throwing the piece of wood he'd been carving into the fire. 

Gaia only shrugs. "Suit yourself. Once there was a rich man whose wife died suddenly. He performed all the proper rites with great splendour, and burned her body and all her possessions, and yet she haunted him, appearing at the foot of his bed, her skin all blackened and horrible and her eyes blazing. But each time he asked her why she came, she would only point at a certain chest and disappear. He looked in the chest, but found nothing out of place. Finally, after she had visited him three times, he thought to look behind the chest, and found one of her gold slippers there. He burned it the following day, and was haunted no more."

Vorenus still looks displeased by the subject matter, and Eirene clearly thinks them all mad to talk so freely of ghosts and spirits, but at least the girls seem entertained, if a little disappointed they didn't get the first tale instead. "Enough stories for tonight," Vorenus says brusquely. "Off to bed with you." They go without protest, leaving the adults to themselves.

Pullo can tell Gaia's interested in Vorenus, the way she looks at him out of the corner of her eye when she thinks he's not paying attention, or gives that little half-smile. Maybe it's just a sensible slave's desire to please, but maybe not. He wonders if she's still fucking Mascius, or if she's set her sights higher now the boss is back. She's seemed a little cold today, more snappish, but maybe that's just female troubles or something. Maybe he should say something to Vorenus later, just in case he hasn't noticed. He wonders whether Vorenus would take that badly or not, then decides that either way, it needs to be said.

When the room is finally clean and the women stop their working, Gaia lingers longer than she has to, tidying things up, moving a jug here, eyeing it critically, moving it again. Eirene yawns. "You go ahead to bed," Pullo tells his wife.

"I don't want to alone," she says, pouting. "There might be a ghost."

He tries not to laugh at her, but doesn't quite manage to keep a straight face. "All right, I'll come up and check the bedroom, just to be sure it's safe for you. And we'll take a lamp. Will that help?"

She agrees to that, and so he takes her up to the room they share and makes a point of looking behind the door and in every dark corner, until she's satisfied no evil spirits are lurking there. "Come to bed soon," she says after he kisses her goodnight.

"As soon as I can," he agrees, smiling fondly. "Vorenus and I have to talk. Man talk, you know?"

She wrinkles her nose until he kisses it. "Always you are man-talking. Talk, talk, talk. Worse than women."

"We're not gossiping," he tells her, "it's important." 

"Yes, always so important," she sighs, and rolls over in the bed. He doesn't tell her that Vorenus never talks about what's _really_ important. He leaves her the lamp and goes downstairs in the dark, feeling his way along the stairs so he doesn't trip.

When he gets back, Gaia's gone and Vorenus is sitting where he was when Pullo left them, just staring into the fire. The only difference is, now he's nursing a drink. Pullo suspects some words must have passed between the two, and wishes he knew exactly what got said. He comes over to sit on the bench across from his friend.

"She's angry at me," Vorenus says, unprompted, which is rare.

"Yes, well, she wants you to fuck her," Pullo explains helpfully.

Vorenus doesn't look up. "I already did."

That comes as news to Pullo - he would have thought he'd have heard about it if Vorenus was getting some pussy, but apparently not. "So what's the problem?"

"I won't do it again. It was stupid of me to do it in the first place."

"She's not such a bad girl. Bit mouthy, maybe..."

"Bad for me," Vorenus says flatly, as if that's the end of the story.

Pullo isn't sure what to say to that, but that's never stopped him before. "Wasn't the sex any good? I imagine she'd be lively, with that temper she has... I bet she's a biter. Does she bite when you give it to her hard?"

Vorenus does turn to glare at him then. "Pullo? If you don't stop talking about her, I will cut out your tongue."

"Fine." But he can't help adding, "I would have thought you'd be less cranky once you got laid."

Vorenus stands up and kicks over the stool he'd been sitting on, hurls his drink at the wall. The wine spills onto the freshly-mopped floor. Startled, Pullo jumps to his feet too, just as a precaution, in case things are about to get violent. But instead Vorenus just stands there, as if he's not sure what to do next. Pullo almost wishes he _would_ hit him; it would be better than that terrible blank stare.

"She's not Niobe," he says quietly.

The mention of his wife's name seems to stir Vorenus. "I know that. I haven't gone soft in the head." He's growing angry again - that's an improvement.

"Good. You were a pain in the arse when you were crazy."

"No one forced you to stay, you know!"

"Idiot," says Pullo, and there's a hint of affection under the annoyance. "You did. You think I could just walk away from you so easily?"

There's a long silence while Vorenus's jaw works, clenching and unclenching the way it does when he's bottling something up, and Pullo wishes he'd just say whatever's on his mind already. "You should have left," he finally snarls, and that's when Pullo really gets angry.

He crosses the room in two long strides and grabs Vorenus by the front of his tunic, hauls him up and slams him against the wall. "It's not all about you, you know," he tells him, and adds a "you self-centred prick" for good measure. And then his mouth is on Vorenus's, hungry and aching, and Vorenus's jaw finally unclenches for him, _opens_ to him. Vorenus's hands slam hard against his back, caught halfway between _fight_ and _fuck_ , and he struggles, but from the moment that jaw loosens, Pullo knows he has him.

He lowers him down gradually and shoves a hand under his tunic, still pinning him against the wall with the weight of his body. Pullo's hard, and isn't shy about rubbing his cock against his friend's belly to let him know it. Even through two layers of fabric, it feels damn good. "Table?" he manages to get out.

Vorenus shakes his head. "They just...ugnh...cleaned them." He grabs Pullo's hand instead and brings it down to the join of his legs, holds it against himself, and Pullo can feel how hard he is, how he needs this release so badly he's trembling. 

Pullo, ever persistent, finds his way past the obstructions of clothing and gets a loose, fumbling grip on his friend's cock. Vorenus bucks against him immediately, so ready, and so he squeezes tighter. 

"Mnh, you too, I need..." Vorenus groans, reaching for him with greedy fingers that dig in hard when they get hold of his arse, pulling him closer. "Gods," he says, pleading almost. So Pullo takes a moment to free his own cock from its constraints and let Vorenus at it. He grabs hold like a drowning man and doesn't let go, just lets his hand slide along its length, quick and steady, and Pullo doesn't know how this can possibly last much longer. 

Vorenus's lips are still parted for his tongue, and he wants to devour that mouth, taste every inch of him. He'd even kneel for him, suck that thick cock if that was what he wanted, but it's not, at least not this time. Instead they meet as equals, hands moving as if they were joined at the wrist, until finally Pullo can't hold back. He sucks Vorenus's lower lip when he comes, tastes blood there. After that, it's only a moment or two longer before Vorenus shudders, slicks both their bellies with his seed, and finally rests his head against Pullo's shoulder until his breath slows and he's still again. When he lifts his head, Pullo notices his tunic's damp at the shoulder with tears, but of course he doesn't mention it. 

Afterwards, there's another long silence while they both get cleaned up and don't look at each other, and Pullo tries to think of what he should be saying under the circumstances. "Maybe there really _are_ spirits about tonight."

"Sometimes I think they never leave."

 


End file.
